The present invention is directed to an electromagnetic relay having a contact arrangement and a magnet system, which system comprises a yoke and an armature movably seated on the yoke and a leaf spring that has a fastening section fastened to lie planarly on a planar seating surface of a rigid carrier formed by either the yoke and/or the armature and has an adjoining, unsecured spring section extending beyond a free end of the carrier, so that the spring section has a predetermined motion latitude perpendicular to the plane of the fastening section.
A relay of this type is known and frequently employed. Examples of such a relay are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,870,378, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference thereto and which claims priority from the same German Application as European Patent 0 278 495. In this relay, a leaf spring that is connected both to the yoke as well as to the armature serves both as an armature bearing spring as well as forming a contact spring projecting beyond a free end of the armature. In the known relay, the yoke end on which the armature is seated forms a sharp edge, and the leaf spring extends planarly on the yoke up to this edge. Likewise, the free end of the armature forms a sharp edge beyond which the free end of the leaf spring extends and carries a movable contact on this end section, which extends planarly lying thereagainst.
When a relay of the above-described structure falls to the ground from a specific height, the armature moves relative to the yoke upon impact and relative to the remaining, stationary parts of the relay. Such a motion can lead to a plastic deformation of the spring for a corresponding impact direction, and this will cause an unintended modification of the electrical parameters of the relay beyond a justifiable extent. When, for example, the armature thus experiences a movement perpendicular to the seating plane of the leaf spring on the yoke upon impact, the leaf spring can be bent over the yoke edge and be plastically deformed. When the armature experiences a blow in a direction perpendicular thereto, for example in the direction of the coil axis or, respectively, of the yoke plane, then the contact legs of the leaf spring can be bent over the terminating edge of the free end of the armature and be plastically deformed given a correspondingly strong impact.